Cirrus@Austlit

Dedication: To my grandmother, Phyllis Jinks

Epigraph: After the night of the storm even the whites must have learned that Jambuwal is stronger than any of us, that to harm him or his people is to risk his anger. The white man may have guns, and dynamite to blast the rocks, but Jambuwal is the mightiest of all.
(Anonymous Aboriginal Writer: Jambuwal the Thunder Man)

Author's note: The prologue is derived from a story retold by A. W. Reed in Aboriginal Myths, Legends and Fables, first published by Reed in 1982 and originally published by Reed as three separate volumes: Aboriginal Fables and Legendary Tales, Aboriginal Legends and Aboriginal Myths, 1977 and 1978. These books were hugely influential on Australian culture and the perception of Dreaming stories in the 1970s and 1980s, although the authenticity of some of the stories was later questioned.